The present invention relates to a vehicle body assembly apparatus for and a vehicle body assembly method of mounting relatively small components to front and rear sides of vehicle body parts.
There is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 9-216584 a conventional vehicle body assembly apparatus for mounting small components to front and rear sides of a vehicle body part.
In this vehicle body assembly apparatus, a vehicle body part is forwarded in at one end of an assembly line, the forwarded vehicle body part is held, necessary small components for front and rear sides of the held vehicle body part are grasped by dedicated jigs and positioned to the front and rear sides, the positioned small components are provisionally welded to the vehicle body part by welding guns, and the vehicle body part is forwarded out at the other end of the assembly line.
Small components to be mounted to front and rear sides of vehicle body parts are different in configuration and location by kinds of vehicles. Therefore, the conventional vehicle body assembly apparatus needs, for every associated kind of vehicle, dedicated positioning jigs for the front sides of respective vehicle body parts and a handling mechanism therefor, and dedicated positioning jigs for the rear sides and a handling mechanism therefor, thus causing a reduced productivity in small quantity production of diverse kinds.
The present invention has been made with such points in view. It therefore is an object of the present invention to provide a vehicle body assembly apparatus and a vehicle body assembly method that allows a maintained productivity even in diverse kind small quantity production.
An aspect of the present invention to achieve the object is a vehicle body assembly apparatus comprising a first mechanism configured to selectively perform a first positioning in which a first set of small components to be mounted to one side of an arbitrary vehicle body part of a plurality of kinds of vehicle body parts are positioned thereto, and a second positioning in which a second set of small components to be mounted to another side of the arbitrary vehicle body part are positioned thereto, and a second mechanism configured to selectively perform a first mounting in which the first set of small components are mounted to the arbitrary vehicle body part, and a second mounting in which the second set of small components are mounted to the arbitrary vehicle body part.
Another aspect of the present invention to achieve the object is a vehicle body assembly method comprising selectively performing a first positioning in which a first set of small components to be mounted to one side of an arbitrary vehicle body part of a plurality of kinds of vehicle body parts are positioned thereto, and a second positioning in which a second set of small components to be mounted to another side of the arbitrary vehicle body part are positioned thereto, and selectively performing a first mounting in which the first set of small components are mounted to the arbitrary vehicle body part, and a second mounting in which the second set of small components are mounted to the arbitrary vehicle body part.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a vehicle body assembly method for welding small components onto a surface of a vehicle body part, whereby a small component is positioned into a general-purpose jig on a moving stage at a part setting station, the vehicle body part being placed onto the set small component and positioned in another general-purpose jig, after which the moving jig is caused to move to a welding station and the vehicle body part and small component are welded together by a welder, after which the vehicle body part is turned over by a reverser, after which it is transferred to outside from the welding station.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a vehicle body assembly apparatus having a moving stage that can move between a part setting station and a welding station, a plurality of general-purpose jigs provided on the moving stage which position the vehicle body parts and the small components at the part setting station, a welder for welding together the vehicle body part and small component positioned on the general-purpose jig at the welding station, and a reverse for grabbing and turning over the vehicle body part after welding.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a vehicle body assembly method for welding a small components onto the front and rear surfaces of a vehicle body part, whereby a first small component to be assembled to a first surface of the vehicle body part is positioned into a general-purpose jig on a moving stage at a part setting station, the vehicle body part being placed onto the set small component positioned in another general-purpose jig, after which the moving stage is caused to move to a welding station and the vehicle body part and small component are welding together, after which the vehicle body part is turned over by a reverser and the moving stage is caused to retreat to the part setting station, a second small component being positioned into the general-purpose jig on the moving stage, after which this moving stage is again caused to move to the welding station, at which the turned-over vehicle body part is placed onto the second small component and positioned into another general-purpose jig on the moving stage, and the welder welds the vehicle body part and the small component together, after which they are transferred to outside from the welding station.